Believers in the right for Michigan voters to decide whether or not the state should legalize recreational marijuana use for people 21 and older are taking the fight to the state's highest court.

MI Legalize, the group behind the effort to place a question about legalizing recreational marijuana use on the November 2016 ballot, filed a motion for the Michigan Supreme Court to overturn a lower court's ruling that the state has no obligation to count all of the the submitted voter signatures.

"Immediate action is necessary so that the voters are not deprived of their right to vote" on the question in the November election, the Thursday, Aug. 25, motion submitted to the Supreme Court reads, asking for the case to be expedited.

A growing marijuana plant. MLive file photo

The group wants to get its petition on the November ballot, which requires 252,523 valid signatures. MI Legalize turned in 345,000 signatures, but the Board of State Canvassers determined that not enough of those signatures were valid because some were collected more than 180 days before the signatures were turned in, making them invalid under Michigan law at that time.

Wanting to avoid the process in place of validating signatures through county clerks, organizers unsuccessfully tried to get the Board of State Canvassers to establish an easier method of validating old signatures.

After MI Legalize turned in its signatures, the legislature changed Michigan law to limit the signature collection period to a strict 180 days.

The Michigan Court of Appeals disagreed, saying in a Wednesday, Aug. 24, ruling, that the Secretary of State, Bureau of Elections and Board of State Canvassers "have no clear legal duty to count the presumptively stale and void petition signatures that plaintiff submitted."

A motion for appeal was submitted to the Michigan Supreme Court Thursday in the case, titled "Comprehensive Cannabis Law Reform Initiative Committee vs. Secretary of State." It's listed as "pending on appeal" with the Supreme Court Monday, Aug. 29.

The case also lists the State of Michigan, the Bureau of Elections and the State Board of Canvassers as defendants in the Michigan Supreme Court filing.

A call and email to MI Legalize seeking comment were not immediately responded to Monday.